Cloaking Inequity

Blogging live from the AERA conference in San Francisco. I am currently listening to the presentations in the session The Racial Complexities of Teach for America in High-Poverty Schools and preparing for duties as discussant. So what is the data collected by researchers being said by these scholar of TFA? (See CI’s TFA posts here) Is there […]

Special Education and English Language Learners are considered vulnerable student populations. As a result, our society, courts, and policymakers have afforded these student populations special protections. However, in California, until recently, policy has allowed districts to offer rookie teachers limited access to training for teaching special populations— including Teach For America corps members. I have […]

The debate about the efficacy of Teach For America continued in the Washington Post this past weekend. Yes, it goes on and on. This time we are discussing a recently released study (apparently not peer-reviewed at this point) that says TFA teachers’ student performed better in math but not ELA. There are many non-peer reviewed […]

Today The Teat returns to discuss neoliberal education “reformers.” Reformers argue that their approach is about “students first”… parent trigger, online courses, universal charters, Teach For America, vouchers, anti-organizing, school closings etc… if you are to believe the “reformers,” all of these efforts are about the students… not about the adults… Who is paying the bills for […]

A Cloaking Inequity reader made me aware of this sincere tell-all from a former TFA teacher that was recently posted on Carla Ranger’s blog, a Dallas ISD School Board member (we have lots and lots and lots of TFA in Texas— Dallas, Houston, Rio Grande Valley etc.). John Bilby’s thoughts reblogged from Ranger’s blog: I left […]

Here I thought I couldn’t be surprised by anything that Teach For America does. Then comes along this investigative piece in Edweek’s Living In Dialogue written by Anthony Cody. It is a (not so) surprising narrative about Native students, mutton, $, and TFA from Four Corners. TFA never ceases to disamaze me (Is that a […]

There is an update on the TFA civil war from California…I received the following letter via email from a source within the TFA alum circle. TFA alumni are organizing for teacher quality in the Golden State. TFA wants to be able continue to assign a revolving door of poorly trained (only 5 weeks in the summer) […]

Is a Civil War brewing amongst the legion of highly-educated (mostly temporary) corps alumni? I have been surprised by the recent articles from former Teach For America teachers discussing a variety of critiques. Emma Lind, a Harvard grad and a former corp member, called for a “rethink” of TFA in the Harvard Crimson. Matt Barnum, the […]

My sources tell me that TFA will release a study on its Texas operation next week by Edvance Research Inc. (Yes, that same Edvance that Sandy Kress lobbies for). Of course it says TFA is awesome. Once it is publicly released, Cloaking Inequity will be on the case and evaluate its methodology, data, and findings.

Want to hear from a TFA teacher about TFA? Look no further than the Harvard Crimson. Emma M. Lind’s message to applying Harvard students: February 15 marks the final deadline to apply to be a 2013 TFA Corps Member, and you should not click “submit.” Reblogged: Rethink TFA | The Harvard Crimson.

As I wrote in the New York Times, Teach for America is a temp agency. There is no way around it— despite inspiring conversations you have with their employees, their glossy brochures, and feel good stories you see in print and on television. It doesnt matter if you look at TFA in California, Texas, etc. […]

I am beginning a new series on Cloaking Inequity called The Teat (the protuberance through which milk is drawn from an udder or breast) to trace financial support which various entities receive that are involved in the current educational policy debates. First up: Sandy (Alexander) Kress Okay, first fun. My Bovine hero, from high atop the […]

I have discussed Teach For America (TFA) previously in the New York Times and in widely-cited brief for the NEPC. See CI’s full TFA thread here. Larry Hill recently sent along an email that was an exchange with a friend who is a supporter of Teach For America in Alabama. His friend told him that “he […]

Unbeknownst to some, current “reform” efforts are interconnected. One example is Teach for America and IDEA charter schools (KIPP is another corporate charter management organization started by former TFAers). IDEA was founded in 2000 by Tom Torkelson and JoAnn Gama, TFA corps members. How about a little nepotism for TFAers at IDEA? TFA also gave out awards to IDEA’s TFAers. IDEA is often in the […]

I recently had a question emailed to me about TFA from a major network producer. I don’t want to give away her story angle, so I won’t share the email here. Anyways, she inspired this post. When I first moved to Texas in 1999, I was invited to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. As […]

Gobble. Gobble. With 31% of the vote, you the readers of Cloaking Inequity have voted Teach For America 2012 Educational Policy Turkey of the Year. Congratulations and condolences to them! For the full thread of posts about TFA, go here. Happy Turkey Day! p.s. My Detroit Lions were robbed by the NFL today on national […]

Cloaking Inequity seeks to illuminate popular and dominant ideologies that purport to foment equality and close the achievement gap. Often well-intentioned citizens support educational policy that claim to create a more inclusive and better quality education system— unbeknownst to them— instead these policies magnify and hide inequality by utilizing an elegant, yet false, bureaucracy of […]

Vasquez Heilig, J. & Jez, S. (2010). Teach For America: A review of the evidence. Boulder, CO: National Education Policy Center, University of Colorado. Retrieve from http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/teach-for-america Teach For America (TFA) aims to address teacher shortages by sending graduates from elite colleges, most of whom do not have a background in education, to teach in low-income rural […]